Striking, coiling up, then dropping food?

[rustypolished]

My little guy is proving to be a bit of a bratty eater. My first attempt got him to strike, but he missed and ended up scaring himself and balling up - He refused to attempt again that night (I left it at the entrance of his hide over night and it was untouched), so I gave him a few days to calm down. He relaxed and started doing the normal "I'm hungry!" behaviors - prowling around his cage, lots of tongue flicking, peek-a-boo'ing from his hide...So I decided to try again.

Now, I'll preface this by saying he's already an f/t eater, and the hoppers I'm offering are actually from the breeder who I got him from, so there shouldn't be a huge problem there. I thawed a mouse, grabbed it with the tongues and danced it about and - Victory! He struck at it and hit! He coiled up, and started to pull it back to his hide box when...

He dropped it. I'm not sure what caused him to give up, but I feel really bad about it. He's obviously hungry and obviously interested, but when I tried to offer it again, I got nothing. I'm not quite sure what I'm doing wrong D:

[meowmeowkazoo]

After he strikes and coils, even if he drops it, just try leaving it overnight for him. Mine will do that once in a while, and the rat is always gone come morning.

[RetiredJedi]

OK, I had the same thing happen with my pin. He struck, coiled (as I made it move a little), and I thought I was good to go. I watched to make sure he ate it but sure enough he dropped it and didn't seem interested. So I decided to try and warm the rat up again with a hair dryer right away. Sure enough, he struck, coiled and finally ate it. It seemed that my guy wasn't fooled by the f/t because it wasn't warm enough for him since it cooled off as he was coiled on it. I would give it a try.

[rustypolished]

Success! I gave him 15 minutes or so to relax before I hit the mouse with a hairdryer to warm it back up and he took it right away! Thanks guys!! I'm so excited!

[Homegrownscales]

It sounds like it wasn't warm enough. And thata why he was dropping it.


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